What Parents Say

The Dashboard provides great insight about how your child is learning mathematics. Depending on what you see when reviewing their progress, you may want to have a conversation with your child about their experience in the app.

Below are several scenarios that might lead to a conversation with your child - along with some recommended talking points for how you might want to approach those conversations.

What Do I Do If a Subject Shows up in Red on the Dashboard?

Please remember that when your child is learning anything new (mathematics, reading, how to ride a bike, etc.) there will be a period of time where progress is red. This doesn’t mean your child is failing - it just shows that they need more attention on this specific topic.

Our system is designed to teach your child mathematics without you needing to intervene or take responsibility for the teaching. We know you have plenty of things to keep you busy raising your child without taking on the additional task of teaching them math. Think of this red indicator as merely an update on your child’s current understanding of that topic. It’s not a warning that you need to act on.

If you want to learn more about the specific concept your student is working to understand, or if you are concerned that a topic has been red for too long and that your child still doesn’t understand it, you can do the following:

If you scroll down a bit further on that main dashboard page, under Topic Milestones you will find a section detailing what your child “May Need Help With.” You can click on these individual activities to try them for yourself in Parent Mode (which will not affect your child’s score). After helping tens of thousands of students, we’ve found it most useful if parents ask their student if they feel like they are struggling with that specific topic. If they say “yes,” have them play the activity in “Parent Mode” while you observe how they answer the question. If they answer incorrectly, ask the student why they thought that was the correct answer. Often, this will reveal the misunderstanding, which you can then help to correct. For example, one parent realized that when their child was asked to figure out which number was “older” the child thought the question was asking which number was “taller” and they were struggling to determine which number was “taller” because the numbers were all the same height! Sometimes the language alone (older vs. taller) can cause confusion - especially in younger children. Once it was explained that “older” meant a “bigger” number, not a “taller” number, the child immediately knew the right answer.

Just below the “May Need Help With” section, you will find a section labeled “Activities for You and Your Child.” Here you will find some recommended actions you can take to help your child understand and apply the concepts they are learning in the app to a “real world” scenario. These recommended activities are customized to the specific topic your child is learning at this point in their learning cycle.

You can also reach out to our Student Support Team at support@elephantlearning.com, and we can help. Our team is ready, willing, and able to give you the guidance you need to feel confident about your child’s learning.

What Do I Do If a Subject Shows up in Yellow on the Dashboard?

As your child learns, their understanding of a topic will start slowly, then accelerate, and finally reach a place of complete understanding. A yellow dot next to the subject means that your child is still learning and, as part of that process, has answered several questions incorrectly in that subject. Students are expected to answer questions incorrectly from time to time, so this is very normal. Unlike a yellow stop light that signals you should take caution, an indication of yellow on your child’s dashboard means that everything is proceeding as planned, and that your child is indeed learning.

As a reminder, our system is specifically designed to teach your child mathematics without you needing to intervene or take responsibility for the teaching. We know you have plenty of things to keep you busy raising your child without taking on the additional task of teaching them math. Think of this yellow indicator as merely an update on the fact that your child is making good progress on understanding the topic they are learning.

If you want to learn more about the specific concept your child is learning, or if you are concerned that a topic has been yellow for too long and that your child still doesn’t understand it, you can do the following:

On the main page of the dashboard, scroll down to Active Curriculum. If you click on the specific subject in question, a detailed view will open that shows you how much time your student has spent on that individual topic. It will also explain the specific concepts we are trying to teach your student in that part of the curriculum.

If you scroll down a bit further on that main Dashboard page, under Topic Milestones you will find a section detailing what your child “May Need Help With.” You can click on these individual activities to try them for yourself in Parent Mode (which will not affect your child’s score). After helping tens of thousands of students, we’ve found it most useful if parents ask their student if they feel like they are struggling with that specific topic. If the child says, “no” it may be that they are just learning. This child will likely keep playing normally and the situation will resolve itself over time. If the student says “yes,” have them play the activity in “Parent Mode” while you observe how they answer the question. If they answer incorrectly, ask the student why they thought that was the correct answer. Often, this will reveal the misunderstanding, which you can then help to correct. For example, one parent realized that when their child was asked to figure out which number was “older” the child thought the question was asking which number was “taller” and they were struggling to determine which number was “taller” because the numbers were all the same height! Sometimes the language alone (older vs. taller) can cause confusion - especially in younger children. Once it was explained that “older” meant a “bigger” number, not a “taller” number, the child immediately knew the right answer.

You can also reach out to our Student Support Team by emailing support@elephantlearning.com. Our team is ready, willing, and able to give you the guidance you need to feel confident about your child’s learning.

There are also Parent Activities listed in each milestone, which provide hints for how you can teach the same concepts outside of our application. Integrating these activities into your daily routine may help your student to understand the concepts of that subject better.

What Do I Do If a Subject Shows up in Green on the Dashboard?

Congratulations! A green indicator on your child’s dashboard indicates that your child is making great progress in learning a concept. Over time, your child’s understanding of mathematics will build on their understanding of earlier, foundational math concepts. A green indicator shows that the learning process is accelerating and they are building concepts on top of each other to gain deeper understanding and mastery.

If you want to augment your child’s understanding of a specific topic, you can:

Scroll to the bottom of the main dashboard page under Topic Milestones to the "Activities for You and Your Child." Here you will find some recommended actions that will help solidify your child’s understanding of the topic while applying concepts they are learning in the app to "real world" scenarios. These recommended activities are customized to the specific topic your child is learning at this point in their learning cycle.
Ask your child to teach you what they’ve been learning. In most situations, parents spend the majority of the conversations with their children trying to teach and/or explain things to them. When you switch the dynamic and encourage a child to teach you, you give them confidence and certainty about what they are learning - which in turn encourages them to learn even more. You might even learn a little math in the process!

How Do I Help My Child Apply Mathematics Outside of the App?

While not necessary for your child to succeed in their understanding of mathematics, exploring ways for your child to apply math outside of the app is a great way to solidify their understanding and continue the learning beyond the bounds of an electronic screen.

We recommend two key ways to take learning "outside of the app":

First, you can scroll to the bottom of the main dashboard page and under Topic Milestones find the section labeled "Activities for You and Your Child." Here you will find some recommended actions that will help solidify your child’s understanding of the topic while applying concepts they are learning in the app to “real world” scenarios. These recommended activities are customized to the specific topic your child is learning at this point in their learning cycle.

Second, you can ask your child to teach you what they’ve been learning. In most situations, parents spend the majority of the conversations with their child trying to teach and/or explain things to them. When you switch the dynamic and encourage a child to teach you, you give them confidence and certainty about what they are learning - which in turn encourages them to learn even more. You might even learn a little math in the process!

What If I'm Not Sure How to Teach a Subject My Child Isn't Understanding?

Please remember that our system is specifically designed to teach your child mathematics - without you needing to intervene or take responsibility for the teaching. We know you have plenty of things to keep you busy raising your child without taking on the additional task of teaching them math. You can rest assured that you don’t need to understand the specific subject yourself in order for your child to learn.

On the main page of the dashboard, scroll down until you reach the Active Curriculum section. If you click on the specific subject in question, you will find an explanation of the specific concepts we are trying to teach your student in that part of the curriculum.

If you scroll down a bit further on that main Dashboard page, under the Topic Milestones heading you will find a section detailing what your child “May Need Help With.” You can click on these individual activities to try them for yourself in Parent Mode (which will not affect your child’s score). Most parents find that this gives them enough of an understanding that they are able to help a child that is struggling. That being said, we encourage you not to presume that your child isn’t understanding the topics. After helping tens of thousands of students, we’ve found it most useful if parents ask their student if they feel like they are struggling with that specific topic. If the child says, “no” it may be that they are just learning. This child will likely keep playing normally and the situation will resolve itself over time. If the student says “yes,” have them play the activity in “Parent Mode” while you observe how they answer the question. If they answer incorrectly, ask the student why they thought that was the correct answer. Often, this will reveal the misunderstanding, which you can then help to correct. For example, one parent realized that when their child was asked to figure out which number was “older” the child thought the question was asking which number was “taller” and they were struggling to determine which number was “taller” because the numbers were all the same height! Sometimes the language alone (older vs. taller) can cause confusion - especially in younger children. Once it was explained that “older” meant a “bigger” number, not a “taller” number, the child immediately knew the right answer.

When in doubt, you can always reach out to our Student Support Team at support@elephantlearning.com, and we can help. Our team is ready, willing, and able to give you the guidance you need to feel confident about your child’s learning.

How Do I Change the Voices?

We offer a wide variety of voices that are used in the application. Sometimes, your child may find a particular voice to be annoying or difficult to understand, so you can enable or disable voices for each child. To change the voices, go to that child's dashboard, and open their settings. You can open the settings by clicking the button above and to the right of their avatar.

In the resulting window, click on the Voices tab. This will show a list of all available voices, which you can toggle on and off. Each time you toggle a voice, it will play a sample of that voice, allowing you to preview how that voice sounds. When you are finished, use the Save button at the bottom right to save your changes.

How Do I Change the Pronunciation?

Sometimes, our voices may pronounce your child's name incorrectly, so you may change the pronunciation with the following steps. To change the pronunciation, go to that child's dashboard, and open their settings. You can open the settings by clicking the button above and to the right of their avatar.

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In the resulting window, click on the Voices tab. At the top of this window, there is a text box for the pronunciation. In this box, spell your student's name phonetically, and preview with the play button to the left of that field. Adjust and respell as necessary until the name is pronounced correctly.